Are You Eating Nutritiously?

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/Units/media/Nutrition.html

by

Rhonda Wixom

Introduction

You will have the chance to decide what is important about your eating habits, what is good and what should be changed. You will learn to find the value of a food item and keep a personal diary of your food intake. You will be introduced to what happens when you eat or don't eat certain foods. What diseases can you avoid? Where can you find more information before you eat again?

The Task

While completing this assignment you will:

Resources

Think about foods that meet the scavenger hunt criteria then look for the brand names in the Search Tools we have used before.

Take a look at an Online Test for Ketchup. Some brand names that are available for ketchup comparisons are Heinz and Healthy Choice. Other brands can be found using the Search Tools.

Once you have determined a related disease look to the Yahoo Research Page and find that disease. Find at least three sources of information about the disease's symptoms, causes, preventions, treatments.

The Process

    Day 1 and 2: What makes the Best Ketchup?

  1. Decide in your group what makes a ketchup the best (some ideas: taste, thickness, color, nutritional value, or ??)
  2. Design an experiment to test your "bestness" and write procedures.
  3. Conduct your experiment and record your results.
  4. Present your results to the class.
  5. Reevaluate your values by writing a journal entry using the question: "What really is important about ketchup?"

    Day 3, 4 and 5: What are Food Labels?

  1. Keep a food pyramid diary of what you eat for three days.
  2. Read through a Food and Drug sheet that explains food labels.
  3. Complete an online scavenger hunt using specifics established by the FDA for each category on a food label, can you find foods that fit each category. (Homework: Find labels in your home for those categories that you cannot find on the web.)
  4. Look at your food log, write a journal entry to set goals to improve your eating habits for the next day.
  5. Next day: Review your progress on your personal food goals. What is keeping you from reaching your goals? Are you influenced by anything in your choices of foods. Write a journal entry about your goal accomplishments/pitfalls.
  6. Create a poster of the food pyramid using magazines to find food in each category.

    Day 6 and 7: An Essay on Deficiency Diseases

  1. Students will learn the research process, creating an outline and collecting notes on cards about a deficiency disease of their choice.
  2. Add to the above notes online research, then write an essay on a deficiency disease related to nutrition answering questions that have to do with the symptoms, causes, preventions and treatments.

    Evaluation

    Students will receive five assignment grades for the two week nutrition investigation. The first assignment will be a complete lab write up of the "Best Ketchup" lab that includes the Introduction, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedures, Data and Results, and Conclusions sections. A separate group grade will be assigned for presentation of the results, and may be in the form of a scientific poster board.

    The second portion will be a Personal Goals Package that includes a three day food diary, Journal Entries for goals and reflection on achieving those goals, and a completed Food Label Scavenger Hunt.

    The third evaluation will be based on group participation in the Food pyramid poster and presentation. Poster content, layout and speaking skills will be reflected here.

    The last grade will be based on the final product of the Deficiency Disease Essay, it should include a detailed bibliograpy in the MLA format and be at least five complete paragraphs in length.

    Conclusion

    The Nutrition investigation allows the students to design, conduct and evaluate the value of a scientific investigation. They then learn skills in evaluating a food's nutritional value and can examine what influences their choices. Lastly it introduces, or reitterates, the research process and produces a written assignment in reference based research format.

    Last updated May 21, 1996. Return to the Media and Behavior Page